The present invention relates to depositing of financial instruments such as checks, and is particularly directed to a method of operating a remote check image capture device, such as an image-based check depositing automated teller machine (ATM), and an apparatus therefor.
A typical check depositing ATM allows an ATM customer to deposit a check (without having to place the check in any deposit envelope) in a public access, unattended environment. To deposit a check, an ATM customer inserts a customer identification card through a user card slot at the ATM, enters the amount of the check being deposited, and inserts the check through a check slot. A check transport mechanism receives the inserted check and transports the check in a forward direction along a check transport path to a number of locations within the ATM to process the check. If the check is not accepted for deposit, the check is returned to the ATM customer via the check slot. If the check is accepted for deposit, the amount of the check is deposited into the ATM customer's account and the check is transported to and stored in a storage bin within the ATM. An endorser printer prints an endorsement onto the check as the check is being transported to the storage bin.
Checks stored in the storage bin within the ATM are periodically (usually daily) picked up and physically transported via courier to a back office facility of a financial institution. At the back office facility, the checks are prepared at a document preparation workstation for subsequent processing in an image-based check processing system located at the back office facility. In a first pass of checks through the image-based check processing system, check image data which is representative of images of the checks is captured. Then in a second pass of checks through an image-based check processing system, the checks are encoded and sorted and matched up with their corresponding check image data which was previously captured during the first pass of checks. The second pass of checks may be made through either the same image-based check processing system that the first pass of checks was made or a different image-based check processing system. Checks are processed in the first and second passes through the image-based check processing system(s) for purpose of clearing checks between financial institutions, as is known.
As an alternative to capturing check image data in a first pass of checks through an image-based check processing system located at the back office facility (which requires the checks to be physically transported from the ATM to the back office facility before the first pass of checks can be performed), proposals have been made to initially capture check image data at the ATM. An image-based check depositing ATM is needed to capture check image data which is representative of checks deposited at the ATM. In a typical image-based check depositing ATM, check image data is initially captured in a “first pass” of checks through the ATM. The remotely-captured check image data is then sent electronically to the back office facility. At a later time (typically weekly), the checks may be picked up at the ATM and physically transported via courier to the back office facility. Then, in a “second pass” of checks through an image-based check processing system located at the back office facility, the checks are matched up with their corresponding check image data which was previously captured at the ATM. The checks are then further processed as required.
From time to time, a check image represented by check image data which has been captured in the “first pass” through the image-based check depositing ATM may be of suspect image quality. For example, after the remotely-captured check image data has been sent electronically to the back office facility, an operator at the back office facility may determine that the quality of the image represented by the check image data is of insufficient quality. If this should occur in known image-based check depositing ATMs, a service operator may need to be dispatched to the particular ATM to retrieve the particular check and process the retrieved check as an exception item through a normal exception processing infrastructure. The cost of dispatching a service operator to an ATM to retrieve a particular check, so that the retrieved check can be processed as an exception item, is usually relatively high. It would be desirable to reduce the number of service trips which need to be made by service operators to remote check image capture devices such as image-based check depositing ATMs.